Well treating process for installing a cable bundle containing strands of changing diameter

ABSTRACT

A bundle of spoolable power supplying and heating cables and at least one weight-supporting strand for forming an assembly for electrically heating or heating and logging a long interval of subterranean earth formations is installed within a well by spooling superposed flat layers of those strands and an interspersed flexible band on a drum substantially as narrow as the layers, while interconnecting the power supplying and heating cables on the drum, and then unspooling the strands into the well while intermittently banding them into bundles and concurrently respooling the flexible band on a different drum.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Commonly assigned patent application Ser. No. 597,764 filed Apr. 6, 1984, by P. VanMeurs and C. F. Van Egmond relates to electrical well heaters comprising metal-sheathed, mineral-insulated cables capable of heating long intervals of subterranean earth formations at high temperatures, with the patterns of heat generating resistances with distance along the cables being arranged in correlation with the patterns of heat conductivity with depth within the earth formations to transmit heat uniformly into the earth formations.

Commonly assigned patent application Ser. No. 658,238 filed Oct. 5, 1984 by G. L. Stegemeier, P. VanMeurs and C. F. Van Egmond relates to measuring patterns of temperature with depths along subterranean intervals by extending a heat-stable spoolable conduit from a surface location to within the interval and logging the temperature with a telemetering temperature sensing means while moving the measuring means within the conduit by remotely controllable cable spooling means capable of keeping the measuring means in substantial thermal equilibrium with the surrounding temperatures throughout the interval being logged.

Commonly assigned patent application Ser. No. 666,528 filed Oct. 30, 1984, by C. F. Van Egmond and P. VanMeurs relates to installing within a well an electrical heater which contains at least one metal-sheathed, mineral-insulated electrical power supply cable connected in series with a similar heating cable, while also installing weight supporting and performance monitoring elements within the well.

The disclosures of the above patent applications are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a well treating process for installing a bundle of strands inclusive of at least two strands having different diameters in different locations along their lengths. More particularly, the invention relates to installing an electrical heater capable of heating a long interval of subterranean earth formation and, where desired, being arranged to facilitate logging the temperature of the heated zone through a spoolable well conduit extending from a surface location to the interval being heated.

It is known that benefits can be obtained by heating intervals of subterranean earth formations to relatively high temperatures for relatively long times. Such benefits may include the pyrolyzing of an oil shale formation, the consolidating of unconsolidated reservoir formations, the formation of large electrically conductive carbonized zones capable of operating as electrodes within reservoir formations, the thermal displacement of hydrocarbons derived from oils or tars into production locations, etc. Prior processes for accomplishing such results are contained in patents such as the following, all of which are U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 2,732,195 describes heating intervals of 20 to 30 meters within subterranean oil shales to temperatures of 500° to 1000° C. with an electrical heater having iron or reuseable chromium alloy resistors. U.S. Pat. No. 2,781,851 by G. A. Smith describes using a mineral-insulated and copper-sheathed low resistance heater cable containing three copper conductors at temperatures up to 250° C. for preventing hydrate formation, during gas production, with that heater being mechanically supported by steel bands and surrounded by an oil bath for preventing corrosion. U.S. Pat. No. 3,104,705 describes consolidating reservoir sands by heating residual hydrocarbons within them until the hydrocarbons solidify, with "any heater capable of generating sufficient heat" and indicates that an unspecified type of an electrical heater was operated for 25 hours at 1570° F. U.S. Pat. No. 3,131,763 describes an electrical heater for initiating an underground combustion reaction within a reservoir and describes a heater with resistance wire helixes threaded through insulators and arranged for heating fluids, such as air, being injected into a reservoir. U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,034 describes a process for forming a coked-zone electrode in an oil-containing reservoir formation by heating fluids in an uncased borehole at a temperature of up to 1500° F. for as long as 12 months.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an improvement in a process in which a bundle of strands including at least one weight supporting strand, and at least two strands which have differing thicknesses along different portions of their length, are installed within a well. The strands of differing thicknesses are spooled onto a drum having flanges separated by a distance near but not less than the width of a layer of those strands with the thickest portions side-by-side. A flexible band which is capable of extending substantially between the drum flanges and bridging across the upper portions of a layer of the strands of differing thicknesses is spooled onto a drum between side-by-side layers of those strands, to form superposed substantially flat surfaces for supporting each of those layers. The strands of differing thicknesses are subsequently unspooled into the well while the flexible band is being respooled onto a different drum. A weight-supporting strand is concurrently unspooled from a different drum so that it enters the well along with the strands of differing thicknesses. The strands entering the well are periodically banded into contact with each other to an extent such that the friction between them and the weight-supporting strand is sufficient to support the weight of the strands between the bands.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a bundle of strands being inserted into a well in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a portion of an electrical heater assembly installed within a well by the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows junctions between metal-sheathed electrical cables suitable for use as strands of differing diameter to be installed by the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a banding together of a bundle of strands in a manner suitable for use in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration exemplifying a drum on which strands of differing thicknesses are spooled in accordance with the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Where spoolable strands have different thicknesses along different portions of their length (with those portions being relatively long in relation to the amount by which the strand thicknesses are different) are spooled onto a drum which is significantly wider than a side-by-side layer of the strands, the thinner strands tend to move between the thicker strands and rest on the thinnest strands already on the drum. This causes a length of the thinner strands which is shorter than that of the thicker strands to be spooled onto the drum during each turn of the drum. During the unspooling of the strands while installing them in a well it may be difficult, if not impossible, to connect the strands to a weight-supporting strand without inducing an undesirable bending or buckling of the longer lengths of thicker strand which are unspooled by each turn of the drum. However, with regard to installing a significant number of strands including several having differing thicknesses along different portions of their lengths, if each of the strands of differing thicknesses are spooled and unspooled from separate drums the work space around the wellhead tends to become overcrowded to an extent making it difficult or impossible to complete the installation. The present invention is at least in part, premised on a discovery of how to avoid most of the crowding problem.

FIG. 1 shows an arrangement suitable for installing even a large bundle which includes 6 metal-sheathed electrical heater cables, a spoolable steel pipe, two thermocouple cables and a weight-supporting wireline. As shown, the well is equipped with a surface conductor pipe 1 with a wellhead within which a casing 2 is hung. A support frame 3 is mounted above the wellhead for supporting spaced apart upper and lower strand guides 4 and 5.

In the situation shown, a band 6 has been connected around the bundle of strands entering the pipestring 2. A drum 7 contains superposed layers of electrical cables 8, which have differing thicknesses along their lengths and flexible bands 9 between the layers of cables. The electrical cables are being unspooled into the well over a sheave 10, or equivalent guide means, attached to a vertical support (not shown). The flexible band 9 is concurrently respooled onto a drum 11. In addition to the electrical cables 8, a pair of thermocouple cables 12 are being unspooled from a spooling means (not shown) on which they are both contained, over sheave 13 and into the well. A steel pipe 14 is similarly unspooled from a means (not shown), over sheave 15 and into the well. A weight-supporting wireline or cable 16 is unspooled from a means (not shown), over sheave 17 and into the well.

The bundle of strands is grouped together in close proximity by the upper and lower guides 4 and 5. Bands, such as band 6 are attached around the bundle and tightened so that the friction between the cables and a weight-supporting strand, such as wireline 16, is sufficient to support the weight of the strands between each of the bands. Mechanical banding or strapping devices which pull a flexible band such as a steel band through a collar portion such as 6a while applying tightening force and crimping the collar portion to hold the bands in place are commercially available. For example, a suitable system comprises the Signode Air Binder Model PNSC34 and other suitable systems, are available from Reda or Centrilift Pump Corporations.

FIG. 2 shows the lower end of a heater installation. As shown, the bottom end of casing 2 has been closed with a fluid-tight cap 20. The weight-supporting wireline 16 has been previously drawn by sinker bar 18 to near the bottom of the pipestring 2. End-connection 19 of a pair of electrical heating cables, such as those forming a lowermost heater, are banded to wireline 16 by a band 6. A nearby end-junction of a thermocouple 12 is similarly banded to the wireline. Where a very high temperature is provided by the lowermost heater, a relatively cool zone is preferably maintained above the heater by a steel-sheathed mineral-insulated cable having an outer diameter similar to that of the heater cable but a current-conducting core which is large enough to supply power to the heater without generating a high temperature. As shown, at the upper end of such a cool zone, a relatively thick power supply electrical cable 8a is joined to a relatively thin high-heat-stable electrical cable 8b by a junction or splice, such as splice 21.

FIG. 3 shows an electrical cable splice, such as splice 21, joining a relatively thick power supply portion 8a of electrical cable 8 to a relatively thin portion 8b arranged to be stable at a high temperature without generating too much heat to provide a buffer zone between a power supply cable and a heater. In the illustrated splice an outer sleeve portion 21 surrounds an insulated connection between the electrical conductive cores of the cable. In a preferred embodiment the power supply portion 8a comprises a copper-sheathed, mineral-insulated, copper-cored cable and the heat-resistant cable portion 8b comprises a steel-sheathed, mineral-insulated cable with a copper core of significantly smaller diameter, for example, as described in greater detail in application Ser. No. 597,764.

FIG. 4 shows a bundle of strands compressed together by a band 6 where the bundle is being run into casing such as casing 2. As indicated by the drawing, a bundle containing six electrical conductor cables 8, two thermocouple cables 12 and a spoolable pipestring 14 can be squeezed into friction-imparting contact with a wireline 16, even in locations close to cable-joining sleeves, such as sleeves 21. Preferably, the cable sleeves are positioned so that three of the sleeves 21 contact three of the sheaths of cables 8a. In such an arrangement frictional forces sufficient to support the weight of a significant length of the strands can readily be imparted to all of the the strands of such a bundle, even at locations inclusive of those containing splices or joints of the strands of differing diameters.

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a preferred arrangement of the strands of differing thicknesses at different locations (such as metal-sheathed power supply cables 8a and heating cables 8b) on a spooling means 7, having a drum 7a provided with flanges 7b. The flanges 7b on the spooling means drum surface 7a are spaced close to but slightly greater than the width of a layer of the strands of differing thicknesses with their thickest portions side-by-side. Where those strands are electrical cables 8 of differing thickness, their thickest portion comprises the sleeves of splices such as splice 21. FIG. 5 shows a layer of six of the cables 8 wound on the drum 7a with their innermost ends connected to, or being adapted to be connected to, elements for attachment to a power supply. A flexible band 9 is concurrently spooled onto the drum so that the band overlies each layer of the strands and extends substantially between the flanges 7b while bridging across the thickest portions of the strands to establish, in effect, successively larger flat-surfaced drums on which single layers of cables are spooled.

As indicated in FIG. 5, where the strands include cables providing an uppermost heater arranged to terminate above a lower heater, spaces left by the absence of power supply cables leading to the uppermost heater can be occupied by spacer strands such as strands 22. Then, during the running-in of the electrical cables into a well, such spacer strands can be respooled onto a separate drum in a manner similar to the respooling of the flexible bands 9. 

What is claimed is:
 1. In a well treating process in which a bundle of strands which includes at least one weight-supporting strand and at least two strands having differing thicknesses along different portions of their length are inserted into a well, an improvement for minimizing the number of spooling means needed for equalizing the length of strands inserted, comprising:supporting the strands of differing thicknesses on a single drum having flanges spaced close to, but slightly greater than, the width of a layer of those strands with their thickest portions side-by-side; spooling a flexible band which is (a) capable of extending substantially between the drum flanges and (b) bridging across the upper portions of a side-by-side layer of strands of differing thicknesses to form a substantially flat surface for receiving an additional layer of the strands; unspooling the strands of differing thicknesses into the well while respooling a flexible band onto a separate spooling means; moving said weight-supporting strand and other strands of said bundle into the well along with the strands of differing thickness; and banding the strands being moved into the well into contact with each other so that the frictional contact with the weight-supporting strand is sufficient to support the weight of the strands between the bands.
 2. The process of claim 1 in which the strands of differing thicknesses are end-to-end connected sections of metal-sheathed, mineral-insulated electrical power supplying and heating cables.
 3. The process of claim 1 in which the bundle of strands moving into the well includes a spoolable pipe string. 